Protein adsorption and wetting of the protein adsorbed surfaces studied by a new type of laser reflectometer

We have devised a new type of laser reflectometer that can measure adsorption behavior of (bio)-polymers, such as proteins, on the substrate surface and also the wetting for the surface of adsorbed layer of such (bio)-polymers. The adsorption and the wetting experiments can be conducted in a sequential manner using the same sample by this apparatus. So, the wetting of the surface of protein-adsorbed layer can be measured in virtually intact state. The reflectometry is based on the traditional optical polarimetry and the wetting measurement is due to the dropping time method (DTM) that has been reported before by the authors. The two methods are combined in an apparatus and hence we can correlate the wetting of protein layer adsorbed on the substrate surfaces with the amounts of protein molecules on the surface. As a model case we demonstrate the adsorption of several typical water soluble globular proteins on stainless steel surfaces. For this combination of the adsorbent with adsorbates, it is found that the water wetting of the protein adsorbed surface is closely related with the adsorbed amounts of proteins not depending on species. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.